522 Low Buston. By J. C. Hodgson. 



his eldest son Charles Francis Forster, born about 1732. 

 Previous to his father's death he had resided at Felton Peth, 

 and at an estate he had purchased near Harbottle, now called 

 Campville. He took a prominent part in the election of 1774, 

 and voted for an annuity out of Low Buston : his character and 

 exploits were satirised in a somewhat libellous lampoon. 

 Commonly known as ' General ' Forster, a sobriquet gained by 

 giving that as his name on arrival at the closed gates of Berwick 

 late of an evening, and hailing the porter for admittance ; this 

 able but eccentric man has left evidences of his taste as well as 

 traditions of other characteristics. He was LL.B., C.C.C. Oxon., 

 and Deputy Lieutenant, and J.P. for Northumberland. He was a 

 successful collector of Roman Altars and Antiquities, as has 

 already been shown in Proceedings, 1887, p. 47. 



Up to this period the hamlet or town of Low Buston was a 

 wide street, from east to west, with buildings and gardens on 

 either side. The mansion faced the road which ran immediately 

 past its north front. C. F. Forster seems to have formed a new 

 public road to the north, to have thrown the old one into the 

 gardens and pasture, and removed the old scattered cottages or 

 else allowed them to fall. About the same time — certainly after 

 1779 — he would plant the fine horse chestnuts and the sheltering 

 plantations. 1 He died in March 1807, without having been 

 married, but by his will, made in 1801, he bequeathed his per- 

 sonal and the unentailed real property to his two natural but 

 acknowledged children, Augustus Caasar Forster, R.N., of Camp- 

 ville, and Julia Csesar,wife of William Storey Forster of Thropton. 

 Low Buston, as settled in 1762, passed to Francis Forster of 

 Margate, eldest son of William Forster, named in that deed. 

 In June 1807, he and his eldest son joined in breaking the 

 entail, and in 1818 the estate was sold to Nicholas Appleby of 

 Eastfield, and John Appleby of Alnmouth, who divided equally 

 between them, the former taking Buston Barns, Hounden Mill, 

 and 275 acres ; and the latter, the Mansion and 215 acres. 



The Applebys were old Acklington copyholders and tenants on 

 the Percy estates. Cavilhead had been farmed by them for 

 several generations, up to 1785, when it was relinquished by 

 Robert Appleby. John Appleby, the purchaser of Low Buston, 

 was Robert's eldest son by his wife Isabella Potts of Thirston. 

 By industry and integrity he acquired a considerable fortune in 

 1 Low Buston flans of 1779. 





